The Wedding Nights of River Song
by Majnoona
Summary: River's wedding night, and her first night in the Storm Cage... and she finds out just what it means to have married a time traveler. Gone from a one-shot to a full series of vignettes. Please R&R!
1. 10:00pm

_Set after The Wedding of River Song. If you haven't seen it and are worried about spoilers, what the heck are you doing here?_

"Hello Sweetie" she said, putting her book aside and sauntering up to the bars of her cell. She'd felt the vibrations from the TARDIS materializing almost a full minute before she caught the flash of dark blue out of the corner of her eye as she'd turned the soft pages of her journal. The tiniest flutter of surprise was squashed by her own small laugh – what's the point of even _trying_ to expect or not expect him?

He reached one hand out between the bars and brushed her cheek. He cocked his head to one side, considering. She gave him her best "well, what?" look, but she knew she couldn't fool him, not for a moment.

Finally he put his finger on it, literally poking at her. "You look sad, that's it. You don't usually look sad." He looked around her cell, searching for a clue. "When is it for you? What's just happened?"

She sighed dramatically, trying to shrug off his concern. "Oh, you know- the running, the end of the universe, the … getting married."

"Ah," he nodded. "And my 'death'." He grimaced at the cell, "And your 'crime'"

"Yes."

He looked away, and then down, and then anywhere but at her.

"That's not how I wanted it to happen you know," he said finally in a voice almost too low to hear.

"Your death? You're not still mad we didn't let you die? I'm afraid I can't apologize for that – turned out you figured out how to save yourself all on your own."

"No-" he finally caught her eye. No matter how his face and clothing and manners changed, that stare always went right though her. "Not the death, the marriage."

"Why? Because I was holding all of space and time hostage and you were actually miniaturized inside a robot impostor in a bubble universe that was erased from time?"

"Well, yes, some of that too." He looked away again. She didn't want to go through their usual page-flipping dance to find out when he'd come from, but something made her think he was from further along than she'd seen recently. He looked older and more troubled. _Not_ at all the bounding, grinning man on the ice at the Frost Fair.

She knew that look all too well: guilt. The guilt that threatened to consume him every time he paused in his run through all of space and time for even a moment to consider all the people he'd lost. All those who had lost themselves for him.

"Oh I know the problem," she teased, trying to pull him back from the brink of self-loathing.

"You do?"

"No dancing."

"Exactly!" He jumped and spun around, visibly relieved that she'd given him an easy out. "You can't have a proper wedding without dancing." He did a throughly embarrassing series of hand-waving dance moves that had her covering her eyes.

But when she dropped her hands, he had turned serious again. "Also," his voice dipped to a whisper, he leaned against the bars, "I wasn't very nice to you."

"Well, to be fair, the last time I'd seen you, I was trying to kill you – and the time before _that_ I actually managed to poison you. So..."

"Forgiven. Absolutely and always, you know that."

"Yes. I know I am. But, do you know that you are as well?"


	2. 10:03pm

"_Forgiven. Absolutely and always, you know that."_

"_Yes. I know I am. But, do you know that you are as well?"_

"River..."

"No, listen. For once, just shut up and listen to me." She grabbed the bars with both hands in frustration, almost snarling at the distance between them. He took an involuntary step back. She shot a glance at the lock and raised an imploring eyebrow. "Please?"

"You know you don't need to ask." He soniced the lock with a flash. She pushed the door open and stepped as close to him as she dared. "You can leave any time- you can come with me, on the TARDIS, for as long as you want or, if you don't want that," he shuffled his feet and cleared his throat so bashfully she almost smiled, "I can take you any place..."

"I don't have a place – born on the TARDIS raised by the Silence..." She shook her head. "And I can't be with you. You know that." She put a hand on his chest, bridging the distance between them at the same time as she held him away. "I was created to kill you my love. I'm not safe, not yet."

"But you will-"

"Spoilers" she put a finger on his lips. "Here I have time – not like you have time, but the 'slow path' where I can figure things out. Understand who I am and what I was meant to be and how to change it. Here I know I'm safe and you're safe because my being here is proof to the universe that you are dead."

"I know you didn't want to marry me – even before you said it. But, ever since I was a little girl – that little girl I can only barely remember, so lost and afraid and confused – I've been headed towards you. Headed towards your murder."

"But somewhere along the way, as they poured stories about you into my childish head hoping I would learn enough to be able to kill you, instead I fell in love. First with the stories, and then, later, with real you. But some part of me was so afraid that I would never be anything but the weapon they wanted. Even at university when I tried so hard to bury that part of myself even as I hunted for you through the archives, I never knew when the training would take over. I..." for the first time she stumbled over her words. "I did thing. Some terrible things." A tiny shudder went though her and he reached out and grasped her by the shoulders.

"Hey. Hey, you're OK." He tilted her chin up so she was looking at him. "We're both OK."

"So you see," she sighed, "even if it's not for the right crime, maybe I'm in the right place. But I needed to be something else, to know I could escape their plan somehow." She gave a weak smile, a pale shadow of her usual grin. "And we both know they never, ever, planned on us getting married."

"They probably didn't see that one coming," he agreed, matching her smile. "So you're in jail for a crime you didn't really commit and I'm dead to the universe. As far as honeymoons go, I think we could do better."

He smiled and held out a hand. "I know this ridiculous moon with 37-hour, round-the-clock, low gravity ballroom dancing. It's a smallish moon, so you can actually waltz around the entire thing and be back where you started in time for tea at planet-rise."

"But, I already told you I can't be with you..."

"I'll have you back 2 minutes from now and promise I won't let you out of my sight the entire time. Only, one thing..." He looked down at her feet.

"What?"

"You may want to change into something with a steel toe."


	3. 10:05pm

"_Sometimes the Doctor lies," she muttered to herself as she limped across the cell. "But not, it turns out, about how dangerous he is on the dance floor..._

She sighed and sat down to unbuckle her shoes and rub her poor, abused toes. She glanced over at the clock – 10:05pm, just as he'd promised. For her it had been days and nights of dancing and talking and more dancing. For the security cameras that glared at her from across the corridor it had been two bursts of sonic static exactly two minutes apart. She smiled, imagining the protracted series of diagnostic tests the Storm Cage security team would put their surveillance systems through trying to track down the "glitch".

She fell back onto the standard prisoner's cot she had yet to sleep on. For a moment the creak of metal springs brought a flash of memory - a dark room with rows of institutional beds, empty and decrepit. Then a hand on her shoulder, the fingers monstrously long... She sat bolt upright, shaking it off – not now, not when she had warmer memories to mull over.

But something was wrong, something had changed, like an invisible wave rippling through Space and Time, passing around her. She'd felt such things before, and it always threw her back to that half-forgotten time when they had taught her things I child should never learn – how to hate, how to kill... They had done other things to her too, she knew, altering her genetic code to make her less human, enhancing the effects of the TARDIS, making her different somehow. Not quite exactly like him, but close enough for their purposes.

She hummed a little string of notes from the Final Waltz – that had lasted over 8 hours- trying to still her racing heart. For a moment, she mistook the slight vibration for memory of that music thumbing though her. Then came a sound always leaped out at her as clearly as her own name through a crowded room.

A breeze brushed passed her face as the air in the room was shoved out of the way by the materializing TARDIS. It had barely solidified when the door opened and the Doctor stumbled out, backwards, right into the wall. He hit the wall with a hard "Ooof!" and she winced in sympathy.

"Sweetie?" she asked tentatively. He recovered, only to charge right into her desk. "Over here..." she waved helpfully. He made a complete turn, squinting into the dim space, his eyes clearly having trouble adjusting to the sporadic flashes of lightening.

"Where the... River?" He squinted at her. "River, is that you?" He looked around, finally focusing on the walls and bars for what, she suddenly realized, must be the first time.

"Storm Cage," he said in a low voice.

"Home Sweet Home!" She forced the usual bravado into her voice, but she was so achingly glad to see him just then – even if, for her, he'd only left her moments before.

He looked at her, rumpled and exhausted, sore foot in hand. "Are you OK? What happened to you?" He crossed the room and sat down next to her, concern all over his face.

"Haha – _you_ happened to me." Her unease wasn't so overwhelming that she was going to miss a chance to tease him.

"Oh. Well, um... sorry?"

"Never." She leaned towards him, knowing a few of her curls would tickle his face and knowing exactly what that did to him.

He cleared his throat and scooted out of range, a flush visible above his collar. He couldn't seem to figure out what to do with his hands.

"You don't know who I am, do you?" She said gently, trying not to let the aching disappointment show, no matter how much she wanted to be in his arms. This was going to be harder than she'd though.

While they sipped tea watching the blue and yellow alien planet rise over the moon's horizon, the Doctor had explained how things would be. How she could never tell him what would happen next, because it could change things and he didn't want it to change. _Not one second. Don't you dare._ He had said, with an intensity that had given her goosebumps.

"Oh, of course I do. Well, I mean, I know some things. Sort of... No, not really," he finally admitted. "I saw you not too long ago you know – at the Byzantium." She frowned at the unfamiliar name.

His lip curled into a hint of a smile. "Ah, looks like I've caught up with you a bit- you haven't gotten there yet, have you? You did say we would see you again soon- but I don't think you meant this."

"We?" She glanced past him to the TARDIS. "Where are Amy and Rory?" If it was this early in his timeline, her parents wouldn't know her either, but it would be good to see them anyway.

He shot back to the cot, looming over her. The last time she had seen him look that fierce was in Berlin, before she'd even known who River Song was...

"Rory?" He wasn't yelling, but somehow that made it worse. "How do you know Rory?" She couldn't get a word out before he continued. "How do you _still_ know Rory? He doesn't exist – he _never_ existed."

She gasped. "What are you talking about?" Now it was her turn to leap up. "What happened to-" _my father- "_Rory?"

"He died," he said flatly, studying her reaction, "he died and then he was _erased_ from time. No one, not even Amy, remembers him. Only me... and, you, River Song."

She shrugged, tears stinging in her eyes, helpless to tell him that she was a child of the TARDIS, that she was more like him than maybe anyone left in the universe. Instead she met his eyes as best she could. "I haven't done anything, if that's what you think..." Trying not to think of some of the things she _had_ done. But no, not Rory. Not her friend for so many years and then...

"No," he backed off, shaking his head, "of course not. But I don't understand how you can _remember_ what never happened."

"I'm a time traveler," she offered. "You know – 'It changes you' - that's all I can tell you." _And it must protect me from whatever's happened to Rory, or I wouldn't exist either._

"You and your secrets," he said, but he seemed satisfied to let it drop, at least for now. He was flitting around the cell, randomly picking up objects and putting them down, "Amy's in the TARDIS, fast asleep. She doesn't remember, but she knows something's missing..."

"I can help," she started for the TARDIS, but he blocked her path.

"No," he said simply, finally.

"No? But it's _Rory_ – you don't understand that _I _need to help him – if there's anything I can do..."

"River, you... you complicate things. I can't have things any more complicated than they are. I'm working things out, but I need more time."

"You don't trust me." she said, sitting back down on the cot.

"Should I?" He looked at her sadly. So sadly it was all she could do to give him the distance he needed. So unlike the man who danced her wildly across miles of marble floors, his hand never leaving hers. "River, if you know me as well as you seem to, then you will do ask I ask."

"OK," she nodded, resigned. He finally met her eyes and let her hold his gaze. "Now, go get back in that big blue box of yours and fix things – bring back Rory."

"Save the day..."

"That's right." He turned to go, and then turned back, crossing the space between them with a single stride, He put his hand on her head, tipping her head forward and kissing her forehead. "I believe you" he whispered.

_Well,_ she thought as the air brushed past her again, this time filling the void left by the demateralizing TARDIS, _that's a start..._


	4. 10:10pm

_Just __a __little __scene__ that __popped__ into __my__ head __the __other __night and would not go away__. _

_Points __if __you __can __guess __the__ referenced__ "__Old__Who__" __companion__!  
><em>

_Mentions things from__ the__ "__tardisodes__" __but __no __spoilers __if __you __haven__'__t __seen __them__... _

_I__'__ve__ got __a__ couple __of __bigger __stories __to __get __to__, __if __people__ are __enjoying __these__. __Not __to __give __too__ much __away__, __but __don__'__t __you __think __her __wedding __night__(__s__) __should__ involve __more__ than __just running to__ 11?_

_Anyway__, __R__&__R__ if __you __want __me__ to __add __more__!_

"I wouldn't go poking around in there if I were you. The owner of that particular room had an overdeveloped interest in explosives." He shook his head sadly. "Never could break her of the habit. Who knows what's in there..."

Amy froze in the doorway. "I was just …. just... uh..."

"Sneaking around the TARDIS in the middle of the night opening random doors?" He offered.

She turned around guiltily to find the Doctor leaning against the corridor wall.

"Well, yes. Kinda." She recovered herself enough to go on the attack, pointing and accusing finger. "Look - sometimes I'm up at night too. And now that I know you're off gallivanting with River every time Rory and I go to bed, I have to find something to keep me busy."

"Hey! I am not off gallivanting! I'm right here." He spread his arms and gave his most innocent smile. "Look, no gallivanting."

Amy resisted for a whole three seconds before crossing the corridor for a big hug. He took her hand in his and they started back towards the console room.

"So who was she?" She couldn't resist asking after a moment.

"Hmm?"

"Who's room was that? Are there still rooms for everyone? Do you keep them around so you can visit?"

"What? Visit? No, no... I didn't even know that was still there. You probably just found it because you were looking for something interesting and the TARDIS obliged by leading you there."

They walked in silence for a few moments, Amy letting the Doctor guide them through intersections and down one of those spiral staircases that always showed up when she least expected.

"So after I'm gone - after we're gone- you'll keep our room too? In case we, you know, popped round for a visit?"

"Sure... sure." The Doctor paused at an intersection and frowned for a moment before taking them to the right.

"Where did you find a teenager into explosives? And don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about - that room looked like something out of an 80s movie - posters on the walls and everything. Did you swoop down into her backyard and whisk her away as well?" She followed him around another right turn.

"Oh, no." The Doctor waved a dismissive hand and took a corridor branching off to the left. "She managed the whisking part just fine on her own. I found her half way across the universe, thousands of years from her proper time... it's a long story."

"It always is with you." Amy gave him a friendly punch on the arm, but couldn't help notice the distant look of sadness that flashed across his face. "Hey, how about a nice cuppa? Since you're having a night in. My treat."

The Doctor dropped her hand, shifting his weight from foot to foot, a sheepish grin on his face. "Ah, see, I need to.. there's this very complicated... uh, time thing I need to... adjust..." He kept glancing over his shoulder as he backed away.

"I thought you said no gallivanting?" Amy folder her arms across her chest and studied him. "Doctor, are you lying to me?"

"No! Of course not. Me, lie? Why would you say -"

She cut him off with a jab of her finger. "Rule One: the Doctor lies."

"Fair point. But, what I said was that I was not _out_ gallivanting. I may have fudged a bit about..."

"Doctor!" River's voice came around the corner a second before she did. "I'm ready for you..." she all but purred.

"- gallivanting here," he finished lamely. River came straight at him, clearly planning on planting a kiss. She was wearing a tiny white tennis skirt and sleeveless shirt, her rambunctious hair pulled back into a ponytail. The Doctor made a frantic waving motion that had River baffled for a moment, until she spotted Amy around the corner.

"Hello, Mother! I didn't expect you to be up."

"Apparently not." Amy was about to expand on that thought but was distracted by the Doctor staring intently back down the corridor River had come from. "What? What is it?"

"Where did you come from?" He asked River. "I left you in the wardrobe, how did you..."

River shrugged. "I popped by my room for some thing."

"_Your_ room?" The Doctor and Amy exclaimed at the same time.

"Of course, _my_ room."

"Since when do you have a room?" The Doctor asked. "_I _decide who gets rooms when here. I do not recall deciding."

"Oh, the TARDIS and I worked something out ages ago."

"You and the..."

"He's so cute when he's speechless, isn't he?" River asked Amy. "Just makes me want to keep him that way all the time..." She turned back to the Doctor. "So are we playing tennis or not? Because little white skirts are not usually my style. But clearly I'm going to have to accommodate some of these quirks of yours... "

He brushed past her down the corridor. "Where are you going?" She called after him. "The courts are back the other way this week."

He pivoted on one foot. "I want to see where this _room_ of yours is."

River laughed. "You'll never find it... You can never find it on your own."

Amy almost managed to squash her own laugh before the Doctor shot her a withering glance. He turned back to River.

"And I supposed you find that funny?"

"Oh, no." She moved towards him, wearing a deep frown of concern and sympathy that only began to crack into a smile as she grasped his collar in her hands. "I only find it funny when you can't find your way _back_ to the console room in the morning..."

"Uh," Amy quickly turned away. "I'll just get back to my room now... or sleep in some corner somewhere... OK, goodnight."


	5. 10:12pm

"Where did you get that?"

His voice was strange, like he was choking on something, though they had finished their picnic an hour ago. River reached up and touched the green-and-gold flower in her hair self-consciously. "I found it growing back there, by the stream. I thought it was pretty..."

"It is," he admitted with a reassuring smile that didn't quite make it to his eyes. They were still intensely fixed on the flower.

"It's OK, right? To pick the flowers?" She looked around the glade for a sign she'd missed, or an angry hoard of morally offended blue-skinned pygmies. It wouldn't be the first time...

"Oh, no. No problem at all. I told you," he made a sweeping gesture with one hand, "we've got the whole planet to ourselves."

They were on Habitalisor Four, a planet roughly half the size of Earth given over entirely to a single, enormous, botanical garden. It was the jewel of the forty-eighth century, prized as the most amazing tourist destination by the population of a hundred worlds. Of course, everyone else could only visit during opening hours. One of the benefits of having a TARDIS handy, she had quickly realized, was never having to wait in line.

"Then what is it?"

He popped up and brushed the grass of his clothing, looking everywhere but at her.

"There's someone you have to meet."

"What? We're going? But..."

"I'm sorry. I can't explain." He started back through the iridescent purple hedge maze to where the TARDIS was parked next to a trellis of singing fulallala berries. She had to almost run to catch up to him, his long legs scissoring along the path.

"Is something wrong? Are we in danger?" Her hand went to the blaster always strapped to her side.

He stopped suddenly, but did not turn to face her. "I'm sorry." He said simply. "I'm very sorry. This won't be easy for you."

"What? What is it my love? You know I will do anything for you. Just tell me what you need."

He turned and took her hands. "Do you have your journal?"

"Always."

"You've looked at the drawings - the faces?"

It took her a moment to realize what he was talking about - the pages, at the front of the journal, where he has sketched almost a dozen different faces, his own included. "You mean your previous regenerations? I don't understand..."

He opened the TARDIS door without answering her, leaving it open behind him. She followed him in and closed the door a second before she felt them dematerialize.

He was hunched over the console, one hand wearily rubbing his forehead. It was one of the rare moments when the enormity of his great age, and the burdens those years had left on him, was written across his whole body.

"Be kind." He spoke so softly she almost missed the words in the hum of the console.

"It was a hard time. He... I... " He finally turned towards her, his eyes rimmed red. "I travelled with a friend, a very good friend. She told me that I shouldn't be alone. She was right. When I'm alone, I make mistakes. And there was a time when I was alone. So alone. And I was angry. It's a dangerous mix."

She crossed the room and put her hands on his shoulders, studying him with concern. "You're not making any sense."

He reached out a hand to touch the flower. "I'd almost forgotten... it was so long ago. I should have recognized them as soon as we stepped out into the garden." He gave a weak, sad smile. "Sometimes you seem like a dream to me, River Song. Impossible River..."

"It must run in the family," she joked gently, hoping to pull him from away from whatever dark thoughts were threatening to overwhelm him.

He leaned towards her and planted a kiss on her lips, then spun her around and pushed her firmly towards the door.

"That's it? That's all you're going to tell me?"

"Oh, you'll be fine. You always find your way back..."

"Like a bad penny?" She squared her shoulders, bracing herself for whatever was waiting outside the blue doors. "You're going to owe me for this..."

"Oh, I owe you for everything..."

She stepped out into a desolate gray landscape, the sky heavy with bright stars and three dangling red moons. A cold wind blew swirls of silver dust between towering columns of stone.

She turned back uncertainly. "Doctor, are you sure this is the -"

"Remember, no spoilers!" he shouted after here. Then the door slammed shut in her face.

_~TBC~_

_[I probably should have split this bit out into it's own story as, clearly, it will be a lot longer than the previous vignettes... but I hope you'll bear with me (hint, you can let me know by reviewing ;-)]_


	6. 10:15pm

"Well, I never," she huffed, and straightened her skirt, slipping the safety catch off her blaster with one smooth movement. She hadn't dressed for being abandoned on a desolate moon, but she'd make due as usual. The upside to having been raised by terrifying aliens and groomed as a psychopathic killer was very rarely being scared by even the most surprising circumstances.

Still... she jumped at the sound of falling pebbled coming from behind one of the black marble outcroppings. Her blaster was in her hand in a flash she wasn't even aware of.

"River! River are you still here?" The voice was strained, exhausted. "Damn it, I'm too late. Too late again!" More falling rocks, someone sliding to the ground. She crouched low against the rock and eased her way around the edge until she could just make out the shape of a man's body in the moonlight.

He was tall and very thin, exaggerated by a crest of brown hair sticking up at the top of his pointed face. He was wearing dark suit, but his white trainers shone in the weak light. He was clutching his side and breathing raggedly, his eyes squinting in obvious pain.

She couldn't make out his face enough to recognize him, but he clearly wasn't a threat. She holstered her blaster and pulled out her journal, flipping quickly to the 'spotter's guide' as the Doctor had called it. She ran her finger past the images - old, young, and just plain odd-looking- until she came to the second-to-last image. The hair, the eyebrows, that nose... it was him. That man, laying on the ground panting, was her Doctor.

She bolted out of the shadows and knelt at his side. He flinched away from her, gasping in effort.

"River! You are still here... I thought I'd missed you."

"_Still_ here? I just got here..."

"Oh, I must be early..." He shook his head as if to clear it. "Sorry, I..." he broke into a rasping cough that shook his whole body. "... I need your help."

Even laid out on the ground in pain, even with a new face, new body, new voice, it only took one look into his eyes to convince her totally and completely that this was the Doctor. The man she had almost destroyed the universe for. Even if he didn't know it.

"Of course darling, anything."

He looked at her sharply.

"You're hurt," she said quickly, looking away from the distrust that shone in his eyes. "Here, let me help you up." She reached for his hand but as soon as her fingers brushed his skin an arc of golden light leapt between them.

"You're regenerating..." She rocked back on her heels, breaking the connect.

He gasped, his eyes huge and round, his teeth bared in something close to a snarl. "How did you do that?"

She couldn't figure out what to do with her hands. She wanted to reach out to him, but knew she couldn't touch him. Not her, not now.

"River," he spat the words through gritted teeth, "_who_ are you? What are you?"

"Spoilers," she said sadly. "No time to argue about it now; you're dying. How long do you have?"

He looked at her without speaking for a few moments, his chest rising and falling with each ragged breath. Finally he swallowed, and took a deep breath.

"A little while... a very little while. But I have some things I need to do and I'm not done yet. You said... you told me the last time I saw you that you could fly the TARDIS. Is that true?"

"Yes."

He looked away, clearly considering his options and then turned back to her, his eyes pleading. "Can you take me to Earth - London- 2005?"

"Of course, anything..." She reached for him again before stopping short. "But you have to get up by yourself, you're too close to regenerating. I'm sorry, I can't explain any more than that..."

"Spoilers?" He lips twisted into something almost like a smile.

"No, actually," she blinked back tears. "I really can't explain..." She gave him some more room and he clawed his way up the rocky outcropping until he was standing.

He wavered on his feet for a moment and then steeled himself, drawing on some last reserve of strength, and nodded at her. "Ladies first..."

She went ahead, following his gesture around a corner into a small grotto where the TARDIS stood, looking black in the shadows. She reached out for the door.

"Hold on a minute, it's locked." He reached for his key just as the door swung open for her.

"I don't need a key." She said as she turned away from him so she wouldn't have to see the his confusion or that flash of suspicion that cut her like a shard of stone.

"Oh... aren't you lovely!" She looked around at the towering, coral-like branches that surrounded the sparse console, all aglow in a soft yellow light. She heard the Doctor close the door and she spoke without turning around. "She's just like you - different, but the same."

"Yes, I suppose you're right." He broke into another cough fit as she crossed to the console and ran her hand along the controls. "So, the TARIS looks different in the future?"

"Oh, damn. You're going to be so cross with me." She turned just in time to see him slide to the floor, leaning back against the wall.

"Are you OK?" She started towards him, but he waved her away.

"Fine. I'm fine. Just... hurry please."

"London, you said?"

"Powell Estate - outside Bucknall House - London, SE15 7G0... " his voice trailed off.

"Doctor? Doctor! Stay with me here." His eyes had closed and she could make out a distinct golden haze around his fingers.

"Doctor, talk to me... tell me, what's in London? You need to keep it together just a little longer."

"My reward... I'm getting my reward."

"Ok, we're here."

His eyes fluttered open again and he looked around. "I must have drifted off there - I didn't hear..." He shook his head and squinted at her, standing with one hand on the controls. "One day you're going to have to explain to me how you can fly the TARDIS."

"One day, my Doctor, I won't have to..."

He held her gaze for a moment and then took a deep breath and pulled himself up. He tugged on his suit and ruffled his hair.

"You look fine, go say your goodbye to whoever's out there."

"Oh, I'm not saying goodbye. I'll be saying hello..." He pushed out the door, letting in a few flakes of snow and the harsh light of a street lamp.

She watched the door close behind him and then walked around the TARDIS. "At least you always know me, don't you my friend?" The TARDIS hummed appreciatively under her fingers. "You'll watch over him, won't you? You always have..."

Quicker than she would have expected, the doors swung open again and the Doctor all but fell in.

"I'm taking us into space, just beyond the moon. You'll be safer there while the regeneration happens."

"No... you have to go."

"Go? But you need me here."

"No, not like this... I need... I need to be alone. And you have to go back."

"Back? To that empty rock? You have got to be kidding me... "

"You say that you trust me. You say that you know me... if that's true, than you'll listen to me now and do what I ask."

She sighed. She knew that tone, even if it was a different voice. "Remind me to be particularly difficult the next time I see you..."

"Oh, don't worry, you were."

"Fine. I've set her to take me back to that rock and then to dematerialize a few seconds later. You'll end up just outside of the Earth's moon's orbit, late 20th century - your favourite."

"Thank you."

"Are you sure you want to be alone? I can stay. You shouldn't be alone..."

"You're not the first person to tell me that."

"I know."

Their eyes met for a moment and she thought she saw something softening there, just the tiniest glimmer. Then she felt the tiniest change in vibration up through her feet. They had landed.

"Take care of yourself."

He was studying his hands, tendrils of golden light flowing out from his finger tips. She watched him for a second and then ran out through the doors into the half-light of the empty moon.

TBC

* * *

><p><em><strong>After I finished this I went back and re-watched the end of The End of Time only to find that my story doesn't *quite* jibe with the way the episode works - it's going to bug me, but hopefully it doesn't keep y'all from enjoying the story! The next instalment will go back to working within cannon, I promise!<strong>_

_**The next bit I have planned is a little complicated (isn't is always we these two!). It might take a little while to get out as i have to go back and watch an episode (maybe more than once - the things I do for my art!). Mention it in your review and I'll PM you a hint about what happens next...  
><strong>_


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